Contents

Background

Hall had been a host on The Late Show,
another talk show on Fox, after the dismissal of Joan Rivers. He was
given a 13-week run, during which he became unexpectedly popular.
During the monologue of his final appearance as host, Hall stated
that the reason he had agreed to only do 13 weeks was because that
was as long as he was able to stay, as he had plans "to do other
things."[1] He
subsequently began working on the Eddie MurphyvehicleComing to America. He ultimately
signed with Paramount Television before Fox
finally decided, too late, that they wanted to keep him.

Recurrent
gags

One of the show's recurrent gags was affixing a humorous label
to a specific section of the audience at stage left of the band,
called the "dogpound."[2] The
labeling was a staple of Hall's opening monologue and almost always
began with the phrase "People who..." In one variation of the gag,
Hall designated this section as "People who are currently in a
Witness Protection Plan," at which point the camera panned
over to that section to reveal a digitally pixillated view of the
audience that made it impossible to identify them.

Although not an actual "gag," Burton Richardson's long intro of the
show's host (in which he would hold the "O" in "Arsenio" for as
long as ten seconds right before Hall came out onto the stage, then
finally announce "HALL!" all in the same breath) became a staple of
the show. In the intro to the final episode, Richardson held out
his one-breath introduction for exactly twenty seconds, one of the
few times he had done so.

A frequent gag in Hall's opening monologue suggested that he
still lived in Cleveland, and drove himself to Los Angeles every
day to host the show. While on these alleged long drives, Hall
would ponder certain thoughts, referring to them as "things that
make you go hmmm..." This running gag inspired a 1990 C+C Music
Factory song by that very title. "Things That Make You Go
Hmmm..." reached #1 on the Billboard Hot Dance
Club Play chart, and #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Popularity

Hall's show was aimed at the younger urban audience, with Eddie Murphy (a
personal friend of Hall's) and other performers often featured. The
show quickly appealed to young people of all races and began to
attract a wide variety of guests. It became the show for
entertainers to go to in order to reach the "MTV
Generation."

The show was known for the audience's chant of "Woof! Woof!
Woof!" while pumping their fists in a circular motion. Some say
this was appropriated from the fan chants at Cleveland
Browns games, and others say that it came from the chant of
Black Greek Letter Organization Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated.
In any case, it quickly became associated with Hall's show.

Hall would often have friend MC Hammer as an interview and musical guest.
He also interviewed "Jason Voorhees", the main character from
the popular Friday the 13th series
of films around the time of the release of Friday the 13th Part
VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan.[3]

Bill
Clinton

Then-presidential candidate
Bill Clinton was a
guest on the show in June 1992, playing "Heartbreak Hotel" on
the saxophone (causing
Arsenio to quip, "It's nice to see a Democrat blow
something besides the election"). The appearance is often
considered an important moment in Clinton's political career,
helping build his popularity among minority and young voters;
Clinton went on to win the election in
November 1992.[4]

Controversial moments

Hall introduced De La
Soul as "the hippies of hip-hop," who then performed their hit
single "Me, Myself, and I,"
which explicitly states that they are not, in fact,
hippies. The credits for the show also began to run over their
performance before they were finished, further contributing to the
perceived "diss." Soon after, De La Soul recorded the song "Pass
the Plugs," in which they responded to the incident with the
lyrics, "Arsenio dissed us but the crowd kept clapping."

During a May 1991 taping, Hall lost his composure
when three or four members of the gay-activist faction Queer Nation that
were seated in the back rows—apparently offended because Hall's
producers failed to book Gus Van Sant to promote his gay-themed
film My Own Private Idaho—
interrupted Hall's opening monologue by shouting questions as to
why he never had any "gay" guests on his show. The heated
exchange[5] went on
for several minutes, with Hall defending his position as host and
arguing that he'd had plenty of gay people as guests.

Hall claimed that his decision to have Nation of Islam
leader Louis
Farrakhan as a guest in February 1994 turned affiliates,
advertisers and some viewers off the show, ultimately leading to
the show's cancellation three months later. Paramount's position
was that ratings had dramatically fallen, causing a sharp decline
in advertising revenue, which led to their decision to cancel.
Opposing rationalizations for the show's demise were disputed
extensively by those on both sides of the issue, and the
accompanying media speculation was rampant. However, it must be
noted that the series appeared in many cities on CBS affiliates,
which began airing the new Late Show with David
Letterman in 1993, thus crowding Hall's program out of its
post-evening-news slot in some markets.

Hall showed a rare moment of anger when he aggressively
attacked Vanilla Ice
during a broadcast in which the latter was the musical guest.
Vanilla Ice was brand new and popular among young people, and had
criticized Hall's friend MC Hammer in the press.